Exit 148 (Quantico) to Exit 143 (Aquia/Garrisonville)
Monday – Thursday, 9 p.m. – 10 a.m. and Thursday – Friday, 9 p.m. – 6 a.m. and Friday – Saturday, 10 p.m. – 7 a.m. Single lane closure between interchanges for construction on the 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension project.
Exit 143 (Aquia/Garrisonville) to Exit 140 (Courthouse Road)
Monday – Thursday, 9 p.m. – 10 a.m. and Thursday – Friday, 9 p.m. – 6 a.m. Single lane closure at mile markers 143-141 for construction on the 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension project, except for Friday morning, when all lanes open at 6 a.m.
Exit 136 (Centreport Parkway) to Exit 133 (Falmouth/Warrenton)
Monday – Thursday, 9 p.m. – 10 a.m., Thursday – Friday, 9 p.m. – 6 a.m. and Friday – Saturday, 10 p.m. – 7 a.m. Single lane closure between interchanges for barrier work for the 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension.
Exit 126 (Spotsylvania) Off-Ramp
Monday – Friday, 9 p.m. – 10 a.m. Mobile lane closures on off-ramp between I-95 and Route 1 for barrier wall installation and removal of cleared trees and vegetation. Early construction activities for the I-95 southbound off-ramp widening and Route 1 southbound widening.
Exit 126 (Spotsylvania) and Exit 118 (Thornburg)
Sunday – Thursday, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m. Single lane closure at the bridge over Ni River, located at mile marker 121, for replacement of bridge joints. Single lane closure begins at 9 p.m. followed by double lane closures at 10 p.m. All lanes will reopen by 5 a.m.
I-95 Northbound
Exit 118 (Thornburg) and Exit 126 (Spotsylvania)
Sunday – Thursday, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m. Single lane closure at the bridge over Ni River, located at mile marker 121, for replacement of bridge joints. Single lane closure begins at 9 p.m. followed by double lane closure at 10 p.m. All lanes reopen by 5 a.m.
Exit 126 (Spotsylvania)
Wednesday – Thursday, 9 p.m. – 4:30 a.m. Single lane closure at 9 p.m. followed by double lane closure at 10 p.m. near the Route 17 (Mills Drive) overpass at mile marker 125. Crews will move a crane being used to build the new interstate overpass.
Exit 133 (Falmouth/Warrenton) to Exit 136 (Centreport Parkway)
Monday – Thursday, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Daytime single lane closure between interchanges for 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension work.
Exit 133 (Falmouth/Warrenton) to Exit 136 (Centreport Parkway)
Monday – Wednesday, 9 p.m. – 4:30 a.m. Lane closures between interchanges for installation of overhead signs as part of the I-95 Northbound Rappahannock River Crossing project and 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension.
9 p.m. – Single lane closure
10 p.m. – Double lane closure
4:30 a.m. – All lanes open
Stafford County
Route 3
Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Lane closures and shoulder closures for utility work between Dairy Lane and Rumford Road.
Route 17 (Warrenton Road) Northbound
Monday – Thursday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Northbound lane closures on Route 17 near the I-95 overpasses, between Sanford Drive and Short Street. Multiple construction activities for the I-95 Northbound Rappahannock River Crossing project.
Route 17 Business (Warrenton Road) Southbound
Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. Southbound Route 17 Business will be reduced to a single travel lane between Heartfields Lane and Washington Street for a road maintenance project.
Route 218
Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Mobile operation with brief lane closures for pavement marker lens placement on Route 218 between Route 606 and King George county line. Flagging crew will direct traffic through the work zone.
Route 628 (American Legion Road)
Monday – Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Bridge inspection. Flaggers will alternate, one-way traffic across the bridge over I-95 between Bowers Lane and Ellison Court.
On Thursday, February 23, Prince William County detectives charged a 27-year-old man in connection with the robbery that was reported to have occurred at the Truist Bank located at 16541 River Ridge Boulevard in Woodbridge on February 9.
Forensic evidence collected at the robbery scene ultimately led to the suspect’s identity. Following the investigation, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect, identified as David Emanuel Andrews, in connection to the incident.
On February 23, the suspect was located and arrested without incident. After the arrest, detectives executed a search warrant at the suspect’s residence in the Shorehaven apartment complex, where other evidence was collected.
- David Emanuel Andrews, 27, of 3000 Whiting Brigade Drive in Dumfries
- Charged with robbery
- Court Date: Pending
- Bond: Unavailable
On February 9 at 10:07 a.m., officers said the suspect entered the bank and passed a note to a teller demanding money. The suspect took an undisclosed amount of money before fleeing the bank on foot. No weapon was seen, and no injuries were reported.
Prince William County is the next school division in our region to consider installing metal detectors.
The state’s second-largest school division aims to place Evolv Express Lanes or metal-detecting scanners at its high schools. If it does, the division will follow Manassas City Public Schools, which voted to install the same type of metal detector at Osbourn High School, the city’s only high school.
Evolv Express Lanes are commonly used at concerts and sports venues.
Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. LaTanya McDade says there will be two more chances for parents to learn about the new system: at Freedom High School on Monday, February 27, and at Woodbridge High School on Tuesday, February 28.
The school division will host a virtual Zoom presentation about the scanners on March 2, 2023. You can register for the presentation here. It’s unclear how many and at which schools the scanners will be installed.
More from McDade:
On [February 22, 2023], PWCS began hosting families and community members at our first of three Safety and Security Briefings to engage in ongoing discussions about our comprehensive approach to “deter, detect, and defend,” including the use of new preventative technology. Our next two meetings will be held at Freedom High School on Monday, February 27, and at Woodbridge High School on Tuesday, February 28. We hope to see and hear from you at one of these scheduled community events or at our Zoom webinar on March 2. More information can be found on the PWCS website.
Stafford County General District Court Judge Jane M. Reynolds released a woman on bond just hours after she was arrested.
Sheriff’s deputies spent two weeks looking for the woman, whom they said twice eluded them in two high-speed pursuits where the she exceeded speeds of 100 mph, putting others on the road at risk.
On February 10 at 12:07 p.m., Deputy B.W. Gildea attempted to stop a revoked driver on Warrenton Road near South Gateway Drive in Stafford County. Instead of stopping, the driver sped away, initiating a pursuit onto southbound I-95 at approximately 114 mph, police said.
Deputies stopped the chase after the driver crossed into Fredericksburg.
On February 11 at 1:04 p.m., Deputy Gildea observed the same suspect, operating the same vehicle, exit the Red Roof Inn onto Warrenton Road. He caught up with the suspect vehicle at the I-95 ramps and attempted a traffic stop again. The suspect accelerated to over 120 mph on I-95 south, and again the pursuit was terminated as it entered Fredericksburg.
The driver was identified as Chelsea Geraghty, 29, and warrants were obtained for two counts of felony eluding and two counts of driving after forfeiture of the license. Deputies continued their efforts to locate her over the last week but were unsuccessful.
On Thursday, February 23, deputies obtained a lead that Geraghty could be in a hotel in Spotsylvania County. Deputy M.A. Pearce coordinated with the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, and Geraghty was arrested last night at the Country Inn and Suites without incident.
She was ordered held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail by the magistrate. During a court hearing today, Judge Reynolds released Geraghty on a personal recognizance bond, police said.
On February 22 at 6:13 p.m., officers responded to investigate a potential threat of violence made towards Lake Ridge Middle School, located at 12350 Mohican Road in Lake Ridge.
The investigation revealed that an unknown individual, later identified as a student of another school, posted threats directed toward the school over Snapchat. A student who received the message immediately informed a family member, who contacted the police.
During the investigation, the School Resource Officer identified the sender of the messages and determined the threat to the school was not credible. Following the investigation, the student, identified as a 12-year-old female juvenile, was arrested and charged with threats of death or bodily injury.
Court Date: Pending | Status: Held at the Juvenile Detention Center
Three poeple are homeless today after a fire ripped through an apartment building in Manassas.
The city’s fire and rescue service says:
The City of Manassas Fire and Rescue Department responded to a structure fire at 03:12 this morning in the 9500 block of Coggsbill Drive. Units arrived on scene to find a working fire in apartment 301, with some extension to apartment 201. The fire was extinguished. There was water damage to apartments 101, 201 and 301. All three units are deemed unsafe and the Building Department will followup.
The fire displaced a total of 3 people (one in each unit) with the Red Cross assisting one of them and one dog. The Fire Marshal has classified the fire as accidental with the cause being improperly disposed smoking materials.
City of Manassas Fire and Rescue units responded along with units from Prince William County Department of Fire Rescue and Manassas Park Fire Rescue.
Call it a canary in the coal mine. Call it the result of years of residents pleading for their local leaders to hear them. Call it a referendum on data centers.
Whatever you call it, the landslide election of Bob Weir to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors with more than 60% of the vote should serve as a wake-up call to those in power in not only Prince William County but those who see data centers as a cash cow for their respective jurisdictions.
Over the past two years, residents in the Gainesville District have watched time and again as elected leaders ignore their pleas to not clear-cut some of the last remaining rural lands in Northern Virginia for flex warehouse space, data centers, an asphalt plant, or myriad other developments sold to them as a way to increase the county’s commercial tax base.
They’ve watched elected leaders campaign on rural preservation, only to perform an about-face when elected and clear the way for more residential development, in the name of equity, on the land they promised to preserve.
On February 7, 2023, 90 Gainesville-area residents spoke against rezoning land for 14 data centers next to hundreds of homes at Linton Hall and Devlin roads. Only five union labor representatives spoke in favor of the project. The meeting lasted until 2:30 a.m.
Afterward, Republicans motioned to deny the rezoning request after hours of public outcry. Democrats killed the motion, keeping the project alive.
It was then residents saw their elected leaders for what they were — caterers to labor unions that have injected tens of thousands of dollars into their campaigns, pushing for more data centers at any cost.
From what we can tell, at least the landowner heard the people and has asked the Board of County Supervisors to defer its decision until a date unknown.
The people in Prince William County are awake; Democrats crossed party lines to elect Weir. I can back up that claim, as I spoke with many conservationists who, over the years, have rallied the vote for Democrats. However, this year, they not only showed up on Election Day for the Republican but also participated in his nomination process in January.
The same distrust and the matching of strange political bedfellows will occur elsewhere if localities like Stafford County, now in data center developer’s crosshairs, follow the Prince William County “data center anywhere” playbook.
However, now the question for Weir and others is: Where should data centers and other commercial development go? It’s no longer good enough to say, “not here, or not over there.”
Though Kerensa Sumers, the Democrat who lost to Weir on Tuesday, incorrectly stated the $4.20 per $100 data center tax rate for Loudoun County when comparing it to the $1.65 rate in Prince William, and then doubled down on the error when pressed, she got one thing right: You can’t continue to lead and grow the state’s second-largest jurisdiction from a position of “no, we can’t do that” or, even worse, “no, we won’t.”
And, frankly, it’s sad to hear residents who once fought mixed-use housing developments like Stonehaven, where they want to build those 14 data centers on Devlin Road, come back to the microphone and say, “we’ve changed our minds: now we want the houses, just not the data centers.”
Prince William County needs more commercial businesses to lessen the tax burden on the over-taxed homeowners. That’s something we’ve known for at least five years since the county’s strategic plan committee created the “moonshot” goal of increasing the county’s commercial tax base by 35%.
Democrats on the Board of County Supervisors know this and, since 2020, have never met a tax increase they didn’t like. The county needs a better plan on where to build data centers involving public input.
How many all-day town hall meetings and “charettes” did the county government hold over the past 15 years to discuss “small area plans” and the long-talked-about “vision” for North Woodbridge or the Rural Crescent boundary line? Quite a few — at least one in every corner of the county.
How many did it hold to seek input for data centers? Very few, if any at all.
If they held the meetings, someone might say, build data centers inside the “data center overlay” district with ample power and water. Build them in industrial areas or in brown spots like old shopping centers along highways.
County leaders have long called for continuing to develop the eastern side of the county, in Dumfries, and Woodbridge, along the Interstate 95 corridor. Build them there and build them taller if space is an issue.
We hear former Deputy County Executive Rebecca Horner has been sent back to the county planning department after several recent departures we told you about last week. She’s familiar with the planning office — she ran the place until she was promoted to deputy county executive in 2020. She may right the ship and create a plan because she’s one of the few people still around with institutional knowledge.
Homeowners — who continue to carry the burden of the cost of local government and schools — deserve a break.
Property taxes have increased year-over-year for the past 10 years (does it really matter if politicians “lower” the tax rate if the tax bill increases?), and they levied a meals tax on anything you buy at a restaurant, without holding a public hearing, despite having a $30 million surplus.
The people have spoken. Will those in power listen?
Prince William County General Registrar Eric Olsen says a Washington State-based ballot printing service claimed responsibility for a $10,000 Election Day snafu.
Olsen said that K&H Printing in Everette, Washington, produced larger ballots than ballot-scanning machines in Prince William County could accommodate. The error led to a small number of ballots being hand counted in a Special Election on Tuesday, February 24, 2023.
K&H will reimburse $10,000 to the county for the ballot error, said Olsen.
Republican Bob Weir won the election against Democrat Kerensa Sumers, who were both vying to serve the remainder of former Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland’s term on the Board of County Supervisors, which ends December 31, 2023.
Olsen said the ballots worked fine during testing in the weeks leading up to Election Day. He told PLN the county’s Electoral Board would implement changes during the ballot testing phase for elections later in the year, though he wasn’t clear on what changes could be made.
“We generated several plans today we are going to weigh. We will also await a full report from the printer to see how they plan to quality control this issue in the future. We’ll discuss and explore the issue more at our next [electoral board] meeting in March in plenty of time to prep for the Primary Election in June,” Olsen told PLN.
All Board of County Supervisors and School Board seats are up during the November 2023 General Election. Several candidates face Primary Election challengers in June 2023.
Olsen said fewer than 5% of voters had a wrong-sized ballot on Tuesday. They were all hand-counted by officers at the end of Election Day in precincts with an equal number of Democratic and Republican officers present.
The state’s Department of Environmental Quality will consider allowing data centers in Prince William, Fairfax, and Loudoun County (the world’s epicenter for data centers) to use generators to feed the power-hungry server farms.
The meeting will take place in DEQ’s Northern Virginia office, 13901 Crown Court, in Woodbridge (near BJs Wholesale Club) at 11 a.m.
From the public notice:
Data center operation relies on the use of large amounts of electricity from the grid. DEQ is concerned that the Counties of Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William is an area in which there may not be a sufficient amount of electricity for data centers due to severe, localized constraints in electricity transmission.
A transmission constraint issue exists in the area which may affect the ability to provide enough electricity to data centers through 2025. In particular, the period between March and July 2023 has been identified as a time of potentially acute stress on the transmission capacity of the grid.
In the lead-up to the November 2022 approval of the Prince William Digital Gateway — more than 800 acres next to Manassas National Battlefield Park now earmarked for data center development — residents and public officials were baffled after asking if the county had enough electricity to supply the server farms.
We’ve written more about this story earlier this month. Read it here.
